Konoha Hospital

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he began moving his body, performing the motions bit by bit. Then he closed his eyes once more and opened them again, carefully sensing every minute change within his body as it moved and exerted force.

Each time he closed his eyes, he was reviewing Hiruzen Sarutobi's memories, learning about the mysteries of the human body hidden within the ninjutsu, secret techniques, and forbidden techniques of this world.

Drawing on the precious knowledge previous generations of this world had painstakingly uncovered, combined with his own experience of reaching the grandmaster realm in martial arts, he gradually explored and mastered this body. Only then did he understand how to train it with proper focus.

With the experience of his own grandmaster realm, the invaluable knowledge recorded by the Third Hokage, and, of course, the formidable physical foundation that the Third Hokage possessed as one of this world's peak experts—

He was confident that he could return to the Hua Jin realm of a National Martial Arts grandmaster in the shortest possible time.

Well, perhaps he could do it even faster.

Thinking of Medical Ninjutsu, he began conducting more "extreme" explorations of his body. He changed his posture and adopted a more dangerous way of exerting force. Before long, pain flared somewhere in his body, and he could faintly sense an injury.

Then he raised a hand. Green light emerged from it and covered the injured area. Of course, an injury would not heal automatically just because his hand covered it. Medical Ninjutsu was an extremely specialized form of ninjutsu. In his view, it was an exceptionally scientific kind of ninjutsu. Or rather, the fundamental understanding behind ninjutsu itself contained a strong scientific element.

After all, even Chakra extraction mentioned cells. That level of understanding was already quite scientific.

Medical Ninjutsu required an even more specific scientific understanding. One had to possess a realistic, foundational knowledge of the body. Without understanding it, how could one carry out precise operations?

Fortunately, the Third Hokage was known as the Doctor of Ninjutsu. His Medical Ninjutsu was quite accomplished, and he possessed a sufficiently detailed understanding of his own body. He had absorbed all of that knowledge.

Furthermore, when exerting force, he had already considered what kind of injuries might occur.

Therefore, this precise Medical Ninjutsu operation was quite successful.

He smiled in satisfaction.

"With Medical Ninjutsu to assist me, I can explore the body's hidden mysteries more effectively. I can also develop a set of training methods best suited to this body by taking its condition into account."

Of course, he was not starting from the basics. The Third Hokage's body had already been trained to great strength, and Konohagakure had also compiled its own Konoha-Style Taijutsu.

Combined with the existence of Chakra, many parts of the body had undergone deep training.

It was simply that this training was incomplete. There were still many areas that had not been addressed. It could only be said that they relied too heavily on ninjutsu and had not pursued more internal, thorough, and comprehensive development in physical training...

Still, that was hardly surprising.

Ninjas were often exceptionally short-lived. Much of their physical training involved squeezing out the body's potential in exchange for results.

He had no intention of criticizing them. Having absorbed this body's memories, he understood the broader environment of the shinobi world. In such an environment, it was better to overdraw one's body than to be shot dead by kunai and Shuriken.

Everything was for the sake of killing.

Yet precisely because everything was for killing, many techniques born from desperate struggle were indeed highly practical.

It was only that they were far too lacking in "nourishing methods," making higher-level transformation difficult.

It could only be said that the environment had left no demand for such things.

Seeking nourishing methods in martial arts also required a stable environment. On the Earth he came from, the most stable region throughout history had generally been the Central Plains.

There was a saying that chaotic times brought change and development to martial arts. Yet without peaceful times creating room for nourishing methods, how could martial arts have developed something as advanced as Internal Family Boxing?

The shinobi world, however, had always lacked such stability. Judging from the Third Hokage's memories of shinobi history, the shinobi world seemed to have been embroiled in endless conflict from the very moment it appeared.

Thinking of such a shinobi world, he could not help but frown.

He always felt that this world seemed steeped in some deep-seated malice...

Orochimaru had initially thought that his teacher would come to see him eventually. Yet several days passed, and his teacher never appeared before him again.

He only heard that his teacher sometimes visited the Ninjutsu Secret Archive or the Forbidden Jutsu Library. At other times, he went to Konoha Hospital to look through the various medical and anatomical records stored there, or to Konoha Library to consult materials.

Other than that, he set aside time each day to visit places such as scenic riverbanks or high open vantage points, where he practiced strange postures.

Those exercises did not look intense. At most, they seemed like stretches to loosen the muscles and joints. At least, that was how they appeared to others. To ninjas, such training seemed utterly devoid of value. Could it increase one's strength? No matter how they looked at it, it did not seem possible.

But the one practicing like this was Sandaime—the legendary strongest Hokage!

Could such exercises actually hold some value?

Some people really did try copying them, but they could not feel any change in themselves.

When Orochimaru learned of it, he also felt that perhaps Sandaime had truly grown old. Maybe it was simply the routine stretching of an elderly man? Probably.

"Send someone to inform my teacher that I wish to see him," Orochimaru ordered.

"Yes, Orochimaru."

Before long, he would have to be called Hokage-sama.

Orochimaru thought to himself. The Daimyo's envoy was already on the way.

When the time came, the title of Hokage would no longer carry the prefix "acting."

Konoha Hospital. Sandaime had come here once again. The hospital was very busy. After all, how long had it been since the Nine-Tails' Rampage? Many wounded and sick still required care.

As a result, much of Konoha's medical manpower had also been gathered at Konoha Hospital.

Naturally, the hospital did not dare neglect the Hokage's arrival. Its director personally received him once again.

Yakushi Tenshin, the director of Konoha Hospital.

She was a woman with beige-blond hair, round-framed glasses, and a gentle smile.

Though only twenty-six, she could already be called one of Konoha's foremost Medical Ninja elites. She had formerly served as the head of Konoha's Medical Team, leading the team in battlefield emergency treatment during the Shinobi World War. Her contributions had been considerable.

After all, the previous head of the Medical Team had been Konoha's Princess Tsunade—the founder of the Medical Ninja system, the strongest Medical Ninja in the world, and the greatest doctor!

In some respects, Yakushi Tenshin could be considered Tsunade's successor. This showed just how accomplished she was in Medical Ninjutsu. Setting Tsunade aside, she was Konoha's most skilled and well-rounded Medical Ninja.

Within Konoha's Medical Ninja system, she had also carried out more systematic and advanced organization, while making several original contributions of her own. Her natural talent might have fallen far short of Tsunade's, but she excelled at systematic organization.

She had made exceptionally outstanding contributions to the systematization of Konoha's medical system.